“Listen up, those of you over 10 years, make sure you keep everyone together. Make groups and keep count. How old is the youngest of this group? If they're below 4, please hand them over to one of the adults. We'll make sure they get a good seat. Everyone here? Good, now hold on tight and look left, a whole group of sand-worms should be visible.”
~ Master Mage Tero Tili of the welcome Committee
Bernin enjoyed these moments. She didn't see her mom that often any more. Both loved travelling and spent very little time back home. Even when one of them was here, the other often wasn't. She could keep in touch more often, she supposed.
“Here, you'll need to fill this in. Or rather, Kirrin will need to do so. Go see how much he can fill in. The doctors should be done by now.”
“Done and done, anything else?”
“Yes, I'll do the paperwork for a new route for you. I should have a new list for you tomorrow. Don't unpack.”
“Thank you, dinner?”
“I'll inform the cafeteria.”
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Kirrin woke up. He was awake already, but this was different. Even a couple seconds ago he was wondering out his uncle and family. What had happened? Why had he just accepted going with this strange new woman?
He shook himself, once, twice and felt panic rising. Where was he even? He remembered something… vague images. One of them was looming over him, grabbing for something around him. The spell was broken when a wizard shook him.
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“Hey son, are you doing better? Feeling hungry?”
He was. Starving in fact. He hadn't even noticed, when was the last eaten?! His focus made his stomach rumble.
The wizard laughed. “I suppose that's one way to answer. Here, let me get you some nice soup. You stay here, ya hear.”
He nodded. He was in bed. A white bed with white sheets. There were some people walking around as well. He saw other beds next to his, as well as on the other side of the hallway. Most were empty, he saw some wizards in white robes a couple beds down. They were speaking to a crystal laying in the bed. It moved! He quickly looked away. He was still confused but more was coming back to him.
“Here you go, I've brought a tray so you can just stay in bed. I love a good breakfast in bed, it just feels more relaxing don't you think?”
He accepted the tray. It has legs so he could set it down over his legs. The plate was filled with basic foodstuffs. There were some small bread rolls, a couple cheeses and some fresh fruit in a cup. He instantly started eating, feeling much more ravenous than he thought he was even seconds prior. After a while he regained enough control of his mouth to speak.
“Can you please tell me what's going on, I'm still very confused.”
“Don't worry too much. You're safe here…. As for what happened. We are still puzzling it out. What we know is that you were snatched by someone you knew as ‘Uncle’. He had no real relation to you as far as we know. He was trying something very very bad and tested some things on you. Bernin, the one who brought you here took care of him. We have been looking into exactly what he did and what it caused.”
“Don't worry too much about what's going on and what happens next for now. The next couple days you will be here and we will be helping you to the best of our ability. My name is Henderson the Healer and I'm in charge of this whole hospital. You'll meet some of the others later, but I wanted to introduce myself first. I'm here to make sure that you knew that you're safe here.”
It took a while, but eventually Kirrin found his voice.
“What… what's next for me.”
“Dinner. Tomorrow is a new day and we'll get you started talking to one of our experts. I hear she uses magic puppets in a show. Apparently it's surprisingly well written.”
Somehow Kirrin doubted that.